Today, the government introduced the Working for Workers Seven Act, 2025. If passed, the act and a related set of regulatory proposals and proposed policy actions would:
Create safer workplaces for stronger workers by:
- Requiring automated external defibrillators (AEDs) on construction projects with 20 or more workers that are expected to last three months or longer. To support businesses with the initial costs for compliance, a program through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) would reimburse constructors for the purchase of an AED.
- Creating the authority to require public infrastructure project owners, constructors and employers to treat Chief Prevention Officer-accredited health and safety management systems (HSMS) as equivalent in procurement processes.
- Establishing the authority to create a new general Administrative Monetary Penalty (AMP) regime under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) to help enforce the new Chief Prevention Officer-accredited HSMS requirements and strengthen overall workplace safety enforcement.
Fighting worker abuse by:
- Cracking down on employers who cheat the system by giving false information, hiding payroll records, or skipping payments – so injured workers get the support they deserve, and everyone pays their fair share.
- Requiring job posting platforms to have a mechanism in place to report fraudulent publicly advertised job postings to the platform, to help protect jobseekers as they search for career opportunities.
- Consulting on protections and regulatory approaches to talent agents, managers and representatives.
- Consulting on employers’ access to electronic information, including examining current access practices, potential privacy restrictions and additional privacy requirements.
Protect Ontario workers by:
- Increasing support for workers in response to tariff-related terminations and layoffs. This includes requiring employers to give employees impacted by a mass termination up to three unpaid days off to job search and access employment services, requiring employers to provide information about provincial government programs for skills training and job search support to employees who are in mass termination situations and allowing employers to extend a temporary layoff beyond 35 weeks so that workers and employers can continue to maintain their employment relationship.
- Improving partnerships with Service System Managers (SSMs), communities, unions, the private sector, Training Delivery Agents and colleges to make timely referrals to in-demand training, including micro-credentials.
- Speeding up the construction of training centres supported by the Skills Development Fund (SDF) Capital Stream by exempting projects from certain planning permits and approval requirements that can slow down construction.
- Introducing a process to deploy proactive Action Centres in case of layoffs to be more agile, data-driven and outcome focused to better support workers affected by U.S. tariffs.
- Providing youth with greater access to hands on learning experiences in the skilled trades by increasing funding for mobile training.
- Consulting on prioritizing apprentice hiring in public infrastructure projects to create more job opportunities and support on-the-job learning for apprentices.
- Granting inspectors the authority to require in-person interviews with applicants through the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program, to improve program integrity and prevent fraudulent claims.
- Enabling the Lieutenant Governor in Council to respond to labour market needs by giving the Minister the ability to establish or remove immigrant nomination streams.
- Making the OINP more responsive by allowing the government to return applications that no longer match current job market needs or raise concerns – so we can focus on processing the strongest candidates more efficiently.
- Allowing Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) employer applicants to submit their applications directly and electronically to the new ONIP employer portal that will launch in Summer 2025.
Additional Resources
- Ontario Introduces Seventh Working for Workers Act
- Working for Workers Six Act, 2024
- Working for Workers Five Act, 2024
- Working for Workers Four Act, 2024
- Working for Workers Act, 2023
- Working for Workers Act, 2022
- Working for Workers Act, 2021
- Working for Workers Act, 2022
- Guide to the Employment Standards Act
- Guide to the Occupational Health and Safety Act
- Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program
- Work in your profession or trade
- Workplace Safety and Insurance Board
- Skilled Trades Ontario
Original Source: Working For Workers Seven Act, 2025 | Ontario Newsroom
Original Author: Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development
